This country is run by businesspeople, politicians, and bureaucrats, with some help from the media, cultural and sporting figures. That’s the view of the Listener, as reflected in its annual Power List published this week (which is not initially available online in full form). This is the fourth time the Listener magazine has attempted to nail down who it is within New Zealand that are the most influential movers, shakers and drivers of life in this country. Although it’s an exercise in subjectivity and news-making rather than anything particularly rigorous, the annual power elite list does illustrates interesting trends and ideas about the powerful in NZ. [Read more below]
Helen Clark tops the list for the fourth year, and is correctly noted as being there by default, delivering a stable government and economy, and being the most powerful PM since Keith Holyoake in the 1960s. Likewise, Michael Cullen is mainly only at number 2 still because ‘he has no obvious successor’. John Key is at number 3, which the Listener notes is significant because ‘No Opposition leader has got so high on the Power List before’ – he’s risen to there from number 9 last year. And Key’s followed closely behind by Bill English who has jumped straight in at number 5 from nowhere.
Politicians do well on the Power List. Although there are only 9 in the whole list, 4 out of the top 5 are politicians. Other politicians on the list include Pita Sharples (at 9 – rising from 15), Sue Bradford (18 – new), Jeanette Fitzsimons (21 – new), and Shane Jones (49 – new). Most of these positions are quite surprising. Sharples is definitely an influential guy, but does he really belong in the top 10? Certainly it’s true that he’s emerged over Tariana Turia ‘as the Maori Party’s de facto leader’. The Listener also notes that he’s a bridge both between Maori and Pakeha and between rural and urban Maori.
It’s also interesting that the Greens should claim two spots in the Power List, and that Sue Bradford should be seen as more influential than party leader Fitzsimons. It’s a testimony not just to her ability to get the anti-smacking legislation through Parliament but also of how respectable and respected she is by the political community. Likewise, Fitzsimons has been propelled to importance according to the Listener by the fact that ‘Green issues have been propelled from the fringe into the mainstream’, and even John Key speculates about her joining a National-led government as a Cabinet Minister.
Other ‘non-politician politicos’ on the list include Heather Simpson (24 – 24), Willie Jackson (26 – new), Andrew Little (40 – new). The Listener comments that although Heather Simpson’s power is ‘waning’, she ‘remains hugely influential on policy-making and political strategy’ in the Government. Simpson is correctly labeled ‘NZ’s most powerful unelected person’ – which is, of course, not a compliment about the Labour Party and democracy in this country.
Ian Wishhart is judged to be New Zealand’s most influential journalist. Not Nicky Hager. You wonder what else Hager has to do to be taken seriously. He writes a landmark book on the sorry state of NZ politics, which directly contributes to the downfall of a major political figure, yet this doesn’t seem to be enough to get him on the list. Likewise there is no John Campbell on the list, and for editorial reasons, no Jane Clifton. Broadcaster, entrepreneur, aspiring and ex-politician, and Maori leader Willie Jackson is at number 26 – because he’s ‘been everywhere this year’.
The most powerful media and entertainment moguls are seen to be John Barnett (who’s company is ‘behind five of NZ’s top-grossing films ever’), Richard Taylor of Weta Workshops (16), Campbell Smith of the Recording Industry Association of NZ (31), John Fellet of Sky TV (32), and Mark Jennings of TV3 News (35 – new). The only culture Power Listers seem to be Oscar Kightly (36) and Bill Manhire (37 – new). Yet sportspeople Graham Henry (7), Jock Hobbs (39), Nick Hill of SPARC (41 – new), and yachtie Grant Dalton (48) claim four spots on the list.
Of the 50 on the Power List, 25 are some sort of business owners or captains of industry. The highest on the list is Sam Morgan, the Trade Me founder, who is seen by the Listener to be there because not only is he rich and innovative, he’s seen to be ‘young, hip’ and a social philanthropist. Graeme Hart has plummeted on the list from number 2 to 29, although he is still worth $2.75B and ranked 336th wealthiest person in the world. Other high-flyers from the corporate world include Henry van der Heyden (8) of Fonterra because he ‘gets to tell 11,000-odd farmers that their incomes will go up by over $200,000 this year’, Lloyd Morrison (12) of Infratil, Keith Turner (14) of the so-called carbon-neutral Meridian energy SOE, Peter Talley (15) of the agri-business Talley’s dynasty, and John Palmer (23 - new) of Air New Zealand, Solid Energy, AMP and Rabobank Australia.
In addition, business advocate Phil O’Reilly is ranked at number 30 (up from 46). He is therefore the highest ranked political lobbyist, and his position accurately reflects the fact that Business NZ is still the most influential business interest group in NZ. That the group has an attuned political antennae is seen in its ‘swing from defence to offence on climate change policy’ and its championing of emissions trading. O’Reilly is described in the Listener as the ‘unchallenged voice of collective business’, and is on so many government quangos that he’s generally seen as ‘the spider at the centre of the web’. Also favoured by both Labour and National is the independent think-tank, the New Zealand Institute, which is headed by David Skilling (45) and involved in trying ‘to get New Zealand firms more successfully engaged with the global economy’. (Notably - but not surprising - Rob McLeod, the chair of the Business Roundtable chair stays off the list for a second year, after being on for the first two years).
Other government favoured businesspeople include Stephen Tindall (22 – new), who the Government has appointed ‘to the chair of its Growth and Innovation Advisory Board’, Craig Norgate (also on the Advisory Board and others), and Jeremy Moon of Icebreaker (42 – new). It seems the old-style corporatist model of government co-option of business leaders is back in fashion.
There are about seven state bureaucrats of one form or another in the list, which is probably a fair representation of power in NZ. These include ex-politician Geoffrey Palmer (who has reinvigorated the Law Commission), commerce watchdog Paula Rebstock (14), Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard (6), who is also married to venture capitalist Jenny Morel who is at number 43 on the list.
In total there are seven women on the list. One, is lawyer Mai Chen (50) who is described as ‘one of the nation’s most influential women’ due to her ‘Washington-style legal lobbying in Wellington’ on behalf of her firm Chen Palmer. Chen says that ‘most public law issues in New Zealand have had some input from us, whether that is known or not’ – which sounds like another indictment of democracy in this country. A number of women have fallen off: Sian Elias, Kerry Prendergast, Julie Christie, June Jackson, Trelise Cooper, and Kaye Parker were all part of the top 50 power elite last year. Commerce bureaucrat Paula Rebstock (17) remains, supposedly as ‘the business community continues to walk in trepidation of her’.
There are six Maori on the list – which is only slightly under-representative of wider NZ society, and therefore suggestive that there are at least some Maori who actually have significant power in NZ. These include MP Shane Jones, Tumu te heuheu (13) who’s the paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa and currently working ‘on the formation of a Maori political council’, Judge Joe Williams (44 – new), and who in his due role as chair of the Waitangi Tribunal and Chief Maori Land Court Judge has the extraordinary power ‘to appoint and remove Waitangi Tribunal members from particular cases’. Paul Morgan comes in for the first time at 46 due to being the CEO of the Federation of Maori Authorities, which controls assets of $5b. According to the Listener, Morgan is ‘a significant irritant to the government’ due to his defence of ‘Maori property rights’ in relationship to forests and climate change policies.
Of course, while business and its allies are incredibly well represented on the Power List, there is only one direct representative of the labour movement on the list – Andrew Little (40 – new) of the EPMU, who is seen as ‘an astute operator’ and a future parliamentarian. Interestingly, he is on the list because he was seen to hold the Labour Party ‘to account over the Taito Phillip Field and election spending scandals’.
So who’s else is off the list? Peter Jackson has gone from number 2 to 5, to 6, to nowhere. Understandably, Don Brash has dropped off after three years in the top 10. Tim Murphy, the editor of the NZ Herald is gone too. Edmund Hillary is conspicuous by his absence too.
There is no more Trevor Mallard. Likewise, neither Goff nor Maharey make the list, which illustrates the Labour Party’s renewal problems. There is no obvious and immediate successor in the list for either Clark or Cullen.
Geographically, the North Island dominates. And while no Power Listers are from Christchurch or Dunedin, a total of four of the powerful supposedly reside in my hometown, Nelson - which probably explains why I could never afford to move back there and buy a house!
In the near future I intend to do some further analysis of the four years of the Listener’s Power List – in particularly critiquing it as a reflection of who really runs New Zealand.
Below is the full list of 50 from the Listener, with last year’s place in brackets:
1. Helen Clark (1)
2. Michael Cullen (3)
3. John Key (9)
4. Sam Morgan (4)
5. Bill English
6. Alan Bollard (10)
7. Graham Henry (23)
8. Henry van der Heyden
9. Pita Sharples (15)
10. Sir Geoffrey Palmer
11. John Barnett (27)
12. Lloyd Morrison (20)
13. Tumu te Heuheu (7)
14. Keith Turner (12)
15. Peter Talley (33)
16. Richard Taylor
17. Paula Rebstock (14)
18. Sue Bradford
19. Paul Callaghan (28)
20. Andy West (34)
21. Jeanette Fitzsimons
22. Stephen Tindall
23. John Palmer
24. Heather Simpson (24)
25. Mark Weldon
26. Willie Jackson
27. Craig Norgate
28. Allan Hubbard (18)
29. Graeme Hart (2)
30. Phil O'Reilly (46)
31. Campbell Smith
32. John Fellet (5)
33. Tony Carter
34. Ian Wishart (29)
35. Mark Jennings
36. Oscar Kightley (36)
37. Bill Manhire
38. Joe Karam
39. Jock Hobbs (22)
40. Andrew Little
41. Nick Hill
42. Jeremy Moon
43. Jenny Morel
44. Joe Williams
45. David Skilling (45)
46. Paul Morgan
47. Graeme Fraser (48)
48. Grant Dalton
49. Shane Jones
50. Mai Chen
